ESB Books: High Tension

Michael McCarthy, High Tension: Life on the Shannon Scheme (The Lilliput Press, 2004).

ISBN: 1-84351-061-8

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Synopsis

High Tension lends an entirely different dimension to the history of the great hydro-electric Shannon Scheme of 1925 to 1929. Hitherto the story has been told from an engineering viewpoint. Now historian Michael McCarthy brings new perspectives to bear on the Irish Free States most audacious construction project at Ardnacrusha. How did the German and Irish workforces get on? What was life like for the 5000-odd navvies and their families, many of them living in barns and pigsties along the nine-mile stretch of the ‘Irish Klondyke’? How did local farmers and householders in Clare and Limerick cope with the massive explosions and disruptions? How did those who lost homes, lands, livelihoods and loved ones cope with the trauma and hardship (53 died and hundreds were injured during construction)?

The guns of the Civil War were scarcely silenced when the Irish government embarked on this huge undertaking, with vision and scarce resources. High Tension details the interdepartmental rivalry among civil servants, the struggles with the labour movement and strong-arm tactics of Joe McGrath, the dogfights with vested interest groups and overburdened local services, and the compensation battles that dragged on years after the Scheme opened. On the 75th anniversary of that opening it seems fitting to tell for the first time this fascinating story.

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Delighted to get this book for which I am truly thankful. The story of the working man beneath the power and prestige of the politicians and the “Bosses”must always be told or else history is devalued.